"I think you will say that the quality of the meat I send is as good as you ever saw."
William Davies
Continuing the Tradition
About Us
Genuine Canadian Bacon was founded by a group of Canadians, residing in the US, who became frustrated when unable to buy traditional Peameal Bacon. Like many Canadian ex-pats, they never adjusted to the American version of Canadian Bacon, which is a smoked center cut of Pork Loin. Today, they are continuing the tradition of William Davies by importing the finest quality peameal bacon available, for sale across the US in both retail and wholesale.
William Davies Store interior, 1908. According to the City of Toronto Archives, sources differ on the store’s location, which was either in City Hall Square, or on Queen Street West, between Bay and Yonge streets.
From William Davies to Today
History
William Davies, born in 1831 in Wallingford, England, emigrated to Canada in 1854, and soon thereafter set up a stall in Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market, where he sold cured hams and bacon. Realizing that there was an opportunity to export Canadian pork products to England, he wrote to his brother in 1860 stating: “I think you will say that the quality of the meat I send is as good as you ever saw.”
By the early 1900s, it was the largest pork packer in the British Empire and it operated Canada’s first major chain of food stores. One of Toronto’s longstanding nicknames, “Hogtown”, is attributable to the millions of pigs processed annually by the William Davies Company.
William Davies couldn’t have had better timing. By the Victorian era, bacon was considered a necessity and demand for the Canadian export was high. Canadian cured pork continued to be an important food product in Britain well into the Second World War, when the Bacon Agreement stipulated that the U.K. would accept no less than 5.6 million pounds of Canadian ham and bacon each week.
Still, Davies’ legacy lives on as many companies continue to produce Canadian Peameal Bacon in his tradition. His company would eventually become today’s Maple Leaf Foods, which still produces peameal bacon for national consumption.
